Parenting Styles, Conscientiousness, and Academic Performance in College Students

Abstract

The relationship between parenting styles and academic performance has been examined by many previous studies with students in K-12, who are school-aged participants. Only limited studies have examined this relationship in college students, the results contradicted results from studies with school-aged students and were less consistent than results with school-aged students. The present study tries to explain this inconsistency, by assessing the relationship between three types of parenting styles and GPA in college students, using conscientiousness as a mediating variable. Typological analyses and regression analyses are both included in the relationship assessment. The mediating effect of conscientiousness on the relationship between parenting style and GPA is also tested. Results indicate that three parenting styles are not predictive of GPA. Authoritative parenting style and Authoritarian parenting style are predictive of conscientiousness. Students from Authoritative families have higher conscientiousness scores than students from other families. A mediation effect was not found in the present study. These findings reinforce the statement about the advanced academic competence outcome of Authoritative parenting and suggest cumulative GPA may not be a reliable measure of achievement and could lead to inconsistent results in the studies that assess the relationship between parenting styles and academic performance in college students.